"The Last Mountain" Debuts at Sundance

TreeHugger has good roundup of the rather sorry slate of environmentally-themed documentaries at Sundance this year. Not to belittle any of the films that are playing—I haven’t seen any yet—but it seems that the fest is a little thin in this department compared to past years.

The standout looks to be The Last Mountain, a documentary about the fight to save “the last mountain” in the Coal River Valley from destruction, and how Big Coal is making a mockery of the democratic principle that no individual or corporate can own the air and water.

The goliath in this tale (which we’vewritten about before) is Massey Energy, the third largest coal energy company in the country, a monster that has recklessly laid waste to the entire Coal River Valley, right up to Coal River Mountain itself, where this story goes down. The David of the Coal River Mountain fight are the grassroots activists that are marching on Washington, chaining themselves to monstrous Earth-moving machines, and offeringeconomically sound alternatives for energy development of the land, all in an effort to save this last peak.

Very early feedback from Sundance seems to be positive. One friend of mine there said the audience was shocked at the sight of mountaintop removal explosions. And, according to Twitter, today’s screening got a standing ovation.

The film’s website has all the info you’ll need about where you can catch it, and also provides some useful resources for action. I’d also recommend connecting with or following the work of Coal River Mountain Watch, who have been fighting this particular fight for as long as anyone.